Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro raises death toll from police raid to 132

Rio state’s Governor Claudio Castro put the death toll at around 60 on Wednesday, but warned that the real figure was likely higher.

Rio de Janeiro’s state public defender’s office has said that 132 people were killed in Tuesday’s bloody police raids on the city’s drug traffickers, more than double the current official toll.

“The most recent update is 132 dead,” the public body, which provides legal assistance to the poor, said on Wednesday.

Recommended Stories

• list 1 of 2Brazilians protest bill that could grant ex-President Bolsonaro amnesty
• list 2 of 2Police operation in Rio de Janeiro favelas leaves at least 64 people dead

Mourners gathered in the streets of Rio de Janeiro Wednesday near where the operation took place as bodies were laid on the road.

Rio state’s Governor Claudio Castro put the death toll at around 60 on Wednesday, but warned that the real figure was likely higher as more bodies were being taken to a morgue, where the dead were being counted.

Four police officers were also killed in the military-style operation, which involved 2,500 officers taking on Rio’s most powerful criminal organisation, the Comando Vermelho, or Red Command.

‘Massacre’

The raids were concentrated in northern Rio’s neighbourhoods of Penha Complex and the Alemao Complex, where some angry residents accused police of summary killings.

“The state came to massacre, it wasn’t a [police] operation. They came directly to kill, to take lives,” one woman in Penha Complex told the AFP news agency.

“There are people who have been executed, many of them shot in the back of the head, shot in the back. This cannot be considered public safety,” said 36-year-old resident and activist Raul Santiago.

A mourner kisses a covered body, the day after a deadly police operation against drug trafficking at the favela do Penha, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, October 29 [Ricardo Moraes/Reuters]

But Castro insisted those slain in the operation were all criminals, claiming the clashes largely took place in a wooded area where civilians were unlikely to be. “I don’t think anyone would be walking in the forest on the day of the conflict,” he told reporters. “The only real victims were the police officers.”

‘Not ordinary crime’

The huge police force engaged in the operation was bolstered by armoured vehicles, helicopters and drones.

The police and suspected gang members exchanged heavy gunfire, with authorities accusing suspects of barricading in buses and deploying explosive-laden drones to attack police.

“This is not ordinary crime, but narcoterrorism,” Castro wrote Tuesday on X, where he shared a video from the fighting.

Police raids against criminal organisations are not uncommon in Brazil’s favelas, and many turn deadly. In 2024, approximately 700 people died during police operations in Rio, a rate of almost two a day.

But rights groups have questioned the timing of such large-scale police operations in Brazil, which are not uncommon before major international events.

Next week, Rio de Janeiro will host the C40 World Mayors Summit and Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, awarded for environmental achievements.

Later on, Brazil is expected to welcome world leaders for the United Nations climate summit, COP30, in the Amazonian city of Belem, starting November 10.